SAGGI

This paper tackles a complex discussion surrounding interculturalism and its translation and implementation into the context of education. The first part of the paper focuses on a critical analysis of interculturalism as a conceptual and political framework. We propose an analysis of interculturalism and its stated multilayered goals, which are often ambiguous, in tension with one another, and divergent. In the second part of the paper, we focus our analysis on the sociological, educational philosophy, and pedagogical extensions and manifestation of the intercultural framework. Here, too, we focus on problematizing the conceptual framework illustrating parallel problem dynamics. Finally, we conclude our paper with a third part, an empirical case study in Italian schools. The qualitative study we highlight was carried out in nineteen Italian schools with 87 educators (68 teachers and 19 administrators) and takes an in-depth look both at intercultural education as practiced by Italian educators. Keywords: Education, Diversity, Responsible Citizenship, Educational Practices, Italian Educators.

The paper illustrates some results of a research which investigate the possible construction of social capital and relational goods within the social network sites (SNS) on the basis of the relational sociology paradigm by P. Donati and the theory of social capital by R. Putnam. The originality of this paper lies in the fact that the conceptual geography of the Italian sociologist and the theory of the merican political expert are declined in the social web environments. The research uses a mix method approach: in the qualitative phase, 12 focus groups have been conducted among social network sites users aged from 11 to 24 years and attending middle school, high school and university. The results of this suggest that the younger consider the social networks as environments where it is possible to build relational goods and social capital, in particular the bridging one. Moreover, Internet allows to strengthen offline bonding social capital, since the web-based communicative and relational practices promote the maintenance of remote ties. The results of the qualitative phase will be useful in developing the items of a questionnaire to be given, in the quantitative phase, to a sample of social network users selected according to the same variables.

This study aims at reconstructing some fundamental paths in Durkheim’s legal sociology in order to verify whether and to what extent they have contributed to provide any reasonable explanation for social deviance, criminal behaviours and the corresponding legal remedies. To this end, Durkheim’s theories are analysed with regard to the functions of law, crime and punishment in society so that their plausibility can be evaluated in comparison with other explanatory hypotheses. This paper shows that Durkheim’s sociological analysis of crime and punishment is potentially a source of great innovativeness and significance for the comprehension of the above-mentioned social phenomena. Unfortunately, Durkheim’s analysis is somehow vitiated by a reductionist attitude that weakens its scope and makes it difficult to interact with other approaches that are capable of providing the analysis itself with fundamental contributions.

The anomic approach refers to one of the theories that have contributed most to explain the genesis of deviant phenomena. By virtue of its parsimony, flexibility and openness to the contamination, anomie theory remains a reference for theoretical and empirical analysis. Just think of how the rich functionalist analysis of Durkheim has been reformulated by Merton, with his insistence on the problematic nature of the discrepancy between the socially prescribed goals and the accessibility of socially accepted means in the Western world after World War II. This is a complex and fruitful legacy – in recent decades constantly enriched of new and original contributions – that invites to contextualize the security issues, in order to produce a realistic representations of dangers and diversify responses to crime, articulating them in relation to the peculiar situations.

The transition from «religious faith» to «systemic trust» has allowed postmodern society to recover the «religioid» energies essential to its own preservation. Recent signs of a deep cultural and social crisis in the West indicate that a new transformation is under way, a transformation that seems to affect the basic strategy of systemic trust, that is, the «routine». After analyzing the passages that marked this trajectory, as rebuilt by authors like Durkheim, Weber, Luhmann and Berger, recent events (the economic crisis, migrations, and fundamentalist terrorism) are analyzed as potentially «detonator» elements, capable to severely jeopardize our «social future». The final insights offer interpretative keys potentially capable of identifying the «re-constructive» side of this routine confidence crisis.

This article discusses, with a qualitative approach, the impact of regional policies for SMEs in two Industrial Districts of excellence in the Region Campania. After rewieving the different stances in this literature, the article focuses on the overlapping between the Industrial Districts and the debate on Southern Italy’s development: it will be argued that the first has turned out to be the main policy tool to achieve the goals defined by the second. By adopting the typical policy sciences double-faced perspective (top-down and bottom-up) for analysing the chosen case studies, two dimensions are singled out: vitality and disjointedness, crossing local communities and their relation with regional government. The article points out how the mainstream framing of Southern Italy’s lacking development produces a dramatic side-effect in Industrial District’s policy: the vitality of territories and local communities turns out to hinder the same policies, which are intended to support them.